Nate Silver, whose confusing math blog became part of the New York Times web site last summer, recently signed up for a new webchat service that allows people to buy facetime with him for $1,000 an hour, only to back out as soon as people started asking, "Hey, why is the New York Times letting one of its bloggers sell webchats for $1,000 an hour? And, really, $1,000 an hour?"